You see in 2135 its believed that Bannu will finally pass between the Earth and the moon.

This entanglement with both objects and their respective gravitational fields will have a definite impact on the asteroid.

“That 2135 fly-by is going to tweak Bennu’s orbit, potentially putting it on course for the Earth later that century,” explains Lauretta.

This is a problem, Bennu is 500m across and travels through space at an eye-watering 63,000mph.

If it were to ever strike the Earth the impact wouldn’t result an extinction event but it would cause an enormous amount of damage to the local and surrounding area similar to that of a nuclear weapon.

NASA

For now, NASA is simply looking to learn as much as it can about the ball of rock which passes our planet every six years.

Carl Hergenrother, staff scientist at Arizona University has high hopes for Bennu:

“We hope that Bennu is what we would call a time capsule, that it hasn’t changed much over the history of the solar system and will show what materials looked like in the very early days of solar system.”

Astronomy Photographer of the Year Shortlist 2016:

14

Stephen Voss

Auroral Nuggets

13

Richard Inman

Antarctic Space Station

12

Rick Whitacre

Between the Rocks

11

Tommy Richardson

Crystal Brilliance

10

Nicholas Roemmelt

Frozen Giant

9

Philippe Jacquot

ISS under Venus and the Moon

8

Ivan Eder

M8 Lagoon Nebula

7

Giles Rocholl

The northern lights illuminate the lagoon at Jokulsarlon, Iceland photo tour, February 2016